How to Eliminate Ear Mites

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1. Ear Mite Signs

   • Your pet scratches its ears a lot and shakes its head.

   • Your pet starts to scratch when you gently rub its ear flap against its ear.

   • Your pet has reddish-brown or black waxy buildup inside its ears. Use a bright light to inspect.

2. Check for Ear Infection:

   • If your pet's ears have a strong rancid, rotten, or yeasty smell, it probably has an ear infection. Veterinary care is necessary to treat this condition.

   • Most likely your vet will treat your pet's ear infection with a prescription medicine called Panalog®. A benefit to this, we have found, is that Panalog® also eliminates ear mites!

3. Treat Ear Mites

   • In our opinion, Ivomec® (Ivermectin) is the most effective treatment to date. It is now commonly used by a number of veterinarians in the U.S. for the treatment of ear mites in cats and dogs. This is the same prescription medicine used in monthly heartworm preventative tablets for cats and dogs and requires that you take your pet to the vet for treatment.

   • There are two methods of  application - by injection or topically in the ear canals.

   • It has been our experience that this is absolutely the most effective method of eliminating an ear mite infestation in a large group of animals.

4. Precautions

   • If your veterinarian is unfamiliar with the latest medical literature that states the safe formulations and dosages of Ivermectin to use for this purpose, we strongly recommend that you avoid this method of treatment! The correct dosages are extremely small (micrograms) and do not correlate in any way to proportional dosages used in cattle.

   • Ivermectin is not FDA approved for the treatment of ear mites in cats and dogs at this time. Your vet should inform you of this fact before proceeding.

5. Follow-Up

   • Repeat the injection or topical application (not both!) treatment two more times, every two weeks, for a total of three treatments.

6. Prevention

   • Ear Mites are transmitted from pet to pet and sometimes are found loose in the environment. Treat all of your pets at the same time to make sure you have eliminated all of the ear mites.

   • Keep your pet and its environment treated for fleas. This also kills any ear mites that might be around to re-infect your pet.